Visibility on Tapas

[carloswebcomic]

Well, absolutely.
And it's a very sad thing, indeed.

Now, this is the way I see it.
Please be advised that I could be just talking bollocks as this is just the explanation I've come up with in my head.

Webcomic communities have always been like that.
Generally, people are pouring their soul into their work. It becomes an extension of them.
They work very hard without much in return.
For many, they will not find acceptance in an audience. They are being rejected, constantly. So, of course, emotions run high.
When you're down and out, the last thing you want is to be faced with someone successful. It's just human nature.

Unfortunately, if you find success, you have little option other than detaching yourself.

Please, do understand that I have a much darker outlook on life as I suffer from chronic depression, so don't take what I say as balanced, but making friends, in general, in the webcomic community, is not a good idea.
Sure, you will find some great people who will support you and be happy for you. I've been fortunate enough to find a few people like that here. But as a whole, webcomics is a brutally competitive field where visibility is limited.
Whether it actually warrants competitiveness or not, it's debatable, but I would advise against expectations of friendship from the webcomic community, specially if you do better than the rest.

Again, this is just my personal view. I'm neither successful nor particularly good, so my exposure to what you're going through is very limited.

[LordVincent]

I gave up on finding friends in the webcomic community long ago. My point was it contributes to an already growing loneliness that is frequently seen among people in this situation, and that parts of the community don't just stop at being angry and jealous, but straight up use the things we are discriminated for irl against us in some... weird twisted manner where it's suddenly an "undeserved strength point".

[carloswebcomic]

Yeah, it gets pretty fucked up.
It's an angry, ugly monster that will use whatever they can find against you.
I was on the receiving end at one point many years ago when I had a moderately successful comic, and since then I've learnt not to be too open about my personal life.

[Kelheor]

I see... Thank you for sharing. Feeling bad it's happening to you and that other authors don't recognize all the work you've done (and wow, you've created so many comics!). I wonder if it's the same in the art community as a whole... it feels like it is.

[jensrichard77]

I gave up on finding friends in the webcomic community long ago.

I like to be your friend.
And I don’t get jealous because I will never be more than an odd stick figure trying to fit in between great artists

[LordVincent]

I've seen artist communities that are equally toxic but usually in a slightly different way..? In the artist community at large, the debating point seems to be more around what is "real art", "real quality" and what isn't.

[carloswebcomic]

I don't know why but this made me laugh so much!

[LordVincent]

Stick figures are friends, not food?

[jensrichard77]

I’m... Glad?
Guess we are frinds now?

[KRWright]

@LordVincent You summed up my life in your post.

[Zugaikotsu]

It reminds me of the "Eye of Argon" situation... I'm happy that this young woman found a way to cope with this. Unfortunately the author of this book I mentioned didn't accomplished the same endurance. Didn't know the name of this situation you described, but yes, not being in the "level" of professoinal exposure and be promoted as such might get you more harm than good

[travelercomic]

God I'm really glad all you Premium folk came out to bring up your two cents.

And that everyone has been respectful about you doing so. I think your insight shouldn't be discredited as biased. Everyone has biases and there's no problem having them so long as people are open and honest about those biases. It doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't have a voice on the forums. I even think it's fine to be against premium comics on principal, but there's a difference between not wanting to support them and treating those who make them poorly. Maybe if more people spoke up like you're doing now attitudes might change.

You shouldn't have to speak up, and really you don't have to, but I think it's been a really nice change of pace around here if I'm being totally honest.

I honestly think most people on the forums are perfectly fine with premium creators and welcome them, but it's that constant vocal minority that cause stinks. Or they'll just use it as an excuse to deflect from something they don't want to hear... that's always a possibility.

[Zugaikotsu]

I think I have witnessed this situation of yours here in the forums, too. Not only with you, but with authors who were the "darlings" of another platforms, not being able to state opinions because they were 'biased' since Daddy had their backs. I'd love to share and hear experiences about the "premium side"of the fence but I also got my kicks, too. And what does a person do when they don't feel welcome? They avoid interaction! xD

[GabiWolf]

See this is so sad, and you are actually one of the authors I did research on when I first started, because you are at the level of success I wanted to be.
People that feel insecure about their work or uncertainties about making this a full time thing, don’t even have access to the people that could really answer their questions because those people have left the forums or are to afraid to answer questions.

I looked at your patreon set up, looked at all the answer threads you answered on here. I mean if you are a small creators have doubts why push out the people that can assure you that your dream is possible?
Another thing people don’t understand is the fact that most people build their audience from outside of tapas, and every time someone suggest to make an Instagram profile or something they are up in arms. And not knowing how to use an app is not an excuse, watched hundreds of YouTube videos on how to run an art insta. If you want webcomics to be your job you have to do the work. And your work could me a lot easier and streamlined if you had people who have done this all before sharing their experience.
Those people also don’t owe you their insight, it is a kindness, and if they feel unwelcome why would they share?

[GesuGesu]

Now that you mention it, I've also been posting less and less often in the forums just because a lot of the threads don't make me feel super welcomed or I can't really relate to the issue. There's a limit to how much "underdog" empathy I have, and while I'm not particular popular and in the "mid-tier" sitting at a couple thousand subs, that number alone seems to cut me apart from many authors here who struggle to reach 25 or a 100 subs.

I would love to share my subscribers with everyone, but I also have been in the comic community long enough to know that you can't force readers to love what you make.

[skicoak]

As one of the "Angrier" voices on here about some of these issues, let me wade in...

I think inherently the worst take on the value of visibility and being featured on Tapas is the cracked logic of underselling it to those who haven't received it.

Sure, I understand it's not a direct pathway to whatever defines "success" in this industry but the continued narrative of NOT acknowledging it as a mainly positive experience definitely colors my opinion of those who push that storyline. When a poster says it only led to "X" more subscribers, it's usually a number substantially way more than our group's current subscribers. It can't help but raise my ire.

The logic is simple.

If being featured got us ONE more subscriber, it's still ONE more than not being featured.

I, personally, don't have a built in bias to individuals that benefit from a system... but that doesn't disqualify me from attacking a system I, personally, see as flawed. I can understand that for those individuals, it sometimes seems like the attack is focused at them specifically.

But no, I respect the individual's grind and their individual paths.

[travelercomic]

Yeh I think we're mostly talking about the specific people who discount what Premium artists say simply due to being a Premium artist. You're more than welcome to buck the system while being respectful to those artists as I and a few others have said above.

Though I'll say as someone who's been featured out of the blue, it's a big high but at least the first time it happens if you're not prepared for the drop off (something no one warned me about, which I'm not blaming anyone for because it's not their jobs) then seeing your suddenly dwindling numbers for six months can also have a pretty negative impact on you.

I don't think anyone here is saying visibility doesn't matter at all, just that it's not something that's within your control, at least when it comes to Tapas featuring etc etc. so it's better to focus on the parts that you have in your control. Rather than letting your disappointment set in and develop a hatred for those who made it.

[skicoak]

I don't think anyone here is saying visibility doesn't matter at all, just that it's not something that's within your control, at least when it comes to Tapas featuring etc etc. so it's better to focus on the parts that you have in your control.

But I do have control over my ability to voice a dissenting opinion to the general practices of a site that maximizes it's ability to push Premium titles visibility while minimizing to the rest of us the role of visibility in "success".

[travelercomic]

But I do have control over my ability to voice a dissenting opinion to the general practices of a site that maximizes it's ability to push Premium titles visibility while minimizing to the rest of us the role of visibility in "success".

Of course you do. That's completely unrelated to what I was saying which was that people here aren't saying visibility doesn't matter at all. Everyone here is free to voice a dissenting opinion about it. My point is simply that they're not saying visibility doesn't matter.

[skicoak]

My point is simply that they're not saying visibility doesn't matter.

This has occurred for years, over multiple threads, and it's a general underselling of the experience.

Sure, no one is saying it DOESN'T matter but the majority are not painting it as the positive experience it's likely to be for the majority of us who haven't had it. It's tone deaf to suggest that these gains, of any sort, aren't extremely important to us in the double digit crowd.